Fib: Ready for energy industry
Trinidad Express
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 30 08
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operators and small contractors in the energy sector
could expect improved financial opportunities
to service their operations through the restructuring
of First Caribbean International Bank.
Fib is now equipped to meet the demands of the
industry by providing local content financing to
investors, Larry Nath, Fib's managing director,
said yesterday.
"We would like to see other financial institutions
include corporate banking as part of their local
content programmes," Nath said to a group
of investors in the industry at Paria Suites in
La Romaine.
He said this would improve the corporate banking
facilities now offered to small entrepreneurs in
the industry.
Nath
said this was absolutely necessary because "after
all, energy is the fastest growing sector in the
economy". He said local content should not
be limited to Trinidad and Tobago.
"Although
we are based here we are a Caribbean bank with
responsibility for the entire Caribbean."
Daniel
Sankar, director for energy financing, said although
energy financing was high risk, "it
has high rewards".
Small contractors have complained in the past
that bank loans were not available to them because
the banks did not have the necessary personnel
to make a decision on the viability of their proposals
for loans, one investor pointed out.
Sankar
said with the high price of crude, the "demand
for this commodity was greater than ever".
"People are now looking at wells that were
ignored in the past, and with the emergence of
modern techniques to extract oil from the ground
the future of the industry is assured," he
said.
Story by Louis
B Homer from
The Trinidad Express, South Bureau
The
Trinidad Express
Thursday, March 13th 2008
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